Good Housekeeping is bullish on flock of sparkling waters, gut pops and other fizzy offerings that have emerged in recent years, pronouncing them healthy and useful in encouraging users to get adequate hydration. In roundup of 15 best sparkling water brands, Spindrift topped the list, as best overall. Among other winners, Hal's Seltzer offering from DSD distributor Big Geyser got the nod as best to replace soda (via its Vanilla Cream flavor) and Aura Bora got nod for its unique flavors, via variety pack with likes of Basil Berry and Lemongrass Coconut.

It's a wild time for packaging in bottled water arena as some marketers scramble to hedge vs stigma of single-use plastic bottles even as others migrate to format for its undeniable convenience and lower expense. Among more striking moves we've been hearing about, Zen WTR brand that's made much of its use of ocean-bound plastic has got a resealable aluminum bottle on way, even as Saratoga Springs brand long associated with elegant cobalt-blue glass bottles has added plastic bottles to the mix under its owners of past year and a half, Blue Triton. Meanwhile, Icelandic Glacial is about to hit market with its long-anticipated foray into sleek cans.

Heineken is bringing on 20-yr Coca-Cola vet Joanna Price as co's new chief corporate affairs officer, effective July 1. She'll take the place of current chief transformation and corp affairs officer, Stacey Tank, who decided to leave the company and rejoin her family in the US "due to the illness of one of her children," co announced. Stacey's last day will be Aug 4, 2023. But she "played a pivotal role in the development of our EverGreen strategy" and left a lasting impact since rejoining the biz in June 2020 (after running corp relations at HUSA from 2012-2015), announcement notes.

Five parts of two decisions by fed ct judge Lewis A Kaplan in dispute between ABI's Mexican subsidiary Modelo and Constellation will be subject of appeal before 2nd Circuit, ABI explained in filing late last mo. Tho opening brief not yet due, addendum to mandatory form lays out issues the co expects to raise. First concerns judge's refusal to rule for ABI Modelo before the trial, just as co suggested in brief notice of appeal last mo. Co plans to challenge both the judge's determination that the meaning of "Beer" (and terms used to define it) in the at-issue agreement with Constellation is "ambiguous" and his decision not to grant judgment for ABI at that stage.

Auction of Bang Energy marketer VPX Sports set for 10am last Fri was held up with further delays and is now scheduled for Thur, Jun 8, a source told sibling publication Beverage Business Insights. Sale hearing is now set for Jun 16, source told BBI. At stake is fate of energy disruptor that's still in top 5 despite a year of severe erosion since Pepsi distribution alliance unraveled. Bankruptcy custodians apparently have to work their way thru a thicket of complex bids to make their selection.

Monster is climbing the ranks among top brewing cos in tracked off-prem channels as Beast Unleashed FMB launch ramps up. On its own, Beast Unleashed is now big enough to rank 24th largest beer vendor by $$ YTD thru May 21 in Circana multi-outlet + convenience channels; at $20.4 mil and 534K cases, it's larger than Deschutes Brewing. Impressively, Beast Unleashed sales ($7.7 mil) were larger than total CANarchy unit in latest 4 wks as CANarchy slipped 9% to $6.9 mil.

Here at BBI, our annual New Year's Resolutions for Bev Entrepreneurs seems to be a popular feature - tho like many who've hung around the bev space a while, each year we're a little less certain we know what we're talking about. Genius Juice's Alex Bayer has been carving out a role as thought leader thanks to his very public jousting with KeHe and podcast that's lately called CPG Vibes. He just offered up his own list of dos and don'ts - well, mainly don'ts. Here are the bullet points, tho the devil's in the details and we encourage you to use the link to enjoy the full read: